Constraint driven on-line recognition of handwritten characters and symbols.

摘要

Method and apparatus for identifying a valid symbol or a string of valid symbols from a sequence of handwritten strokes. A method includes the steps of (a) generating in response to one or more handwritten strokes a plurality of stroke labels each having an associated score; (b) processing the plurality of stroke labels in accordance with a beam search-like technique to identify those stroke labels indicative of a valid symbol or portion of a valid symbol; and (c) associating together identified stroke labels to determine an identity of a valid symbol or a string of valid symbols therefrom. An aspect of the invention is that each of the constraint validation filters is switchably coupled into a serial filter chain. The switches function to either couple a filter input to a stroke label or decouple the input and provide a path around the filter block. An application writer has available a plurality of constraint filters. The application writer specifies which one or ones of the constraint filters are to be applied for a specific sequence of strokes. <IMAGE>